From Philip Mazzei

[dateline] Florence 21. May 1782

[salute] Sir

Permit me to congratulate your Excellency on your complete success, which I am confident
is owing to your prudent, wise, and indefatigable endeavours, at least as much as
to certain favourable circumstances. From this place I knew, perhaps better than you
could, all the obstacles you had to surmount; which would not be surprising, as it
is natural to suppose that you have almost constantly kept company with the independent
and patriotick part of the Inhabitants, while I was in the way of being informed of
the most refined intrigues of the opposite party from an unquestionable Authority.
I have spoken of your Excellency to a great Personage, and mentioned more than once
that if any good could be made of the Dutch, you was in my opinion the most proper
person to bring them to it, just as I had the honour to write you in my letter of
28. March 1781.1 I congratulate your Excellency once more, because you have really gained a great
point. The Personage in question had his doubts to the last moment.

I took the liberty to trouble you again the 24 and 31. of May following,2 but having not been honored since with an answer, I am still in doubt whether it
did proceed from want of leasure, or from my letters being miscarried. Since that
time I have recd. of the Govt. of Virginia the duplicates of my Commissions and Instructions,
which were kept either by Mr. Penet, or Dr. Franklin, about a year in France, and
at last sent from Passy, and left at Mr. Favi's house3 in Paris by an unknown person, without any message, together with 4. letters from
the Govr., and one from the Board of Trade. The Govr. writes me that it is the 4th.
set of duplicates they have sent me. The letters being now almost 2. years old can
be of no service.4

I think I told you, Sir, that according to my Instructions I was impowered to give
only 5. % interest for the money I was to borrow on the credit of my State, and that after
I had heared from Dr. Franklin (with whom my Instructions direct me to confer and avail myself of his information and advice) that he had tried to raise { 69 } money for Congress in Genoa at 6., I had written to the Govt. of Virginia desiring
them to enlarge my Powers accordingly. In a letter I wrote them afterwards from Genoa,
which I inclosed unsealed to your Excellency before I knew you had left Paris, I informed
them that I might raise some money there at 5., allowing 3. or 4. % for charges at first, once for ever, as it had been done for the Queen of Hungary,
the Ducal Chamber of Milan, and others, which is much cheaper to the borrower than
one % annually. After receiving the honour of your letter last year, I informed them
of what you had written to me in money-matter, of my answer to you on the subject,5 and desired them, in case the conditions on which the Loan could be obtained did
not suit them, to let me know it, and give me leave to act for Congress. The only
letter I have recd. since is from Col. Maddison, dated Philadelphia 25. October 1781.,6 in which he tells me that my cipher was lost in the late confusions in Virginia,
therefore that I must make no more use of it in my future correspondence, and refers
to 2. preceding letters which I have not received. I am at a loss what to do, and
know nobody to consult for advice but your Excellency. Could my finances afford it,
I would immediately set out for Holland.

As to finances, in one of the said letters the Govr. orders me to draw the sum of
300. louis on the House of Penet & Co:; and says “you will therefore consider yourself
as authorised to draw on them for that sum and be assured that your draught will be
honored.” In another letter, in which he tells me some thing of the transactions of
our State with that House, he says “we have been very attentive to the strengthening
their hands.”7 My bill for the 300. Louis was protested, on pretence of having no funds in their
hands belonging to the State of Virginia. I have since heared from a young Virginian
Gentleman now in France, son to our Col. George Mason, that Penet had recd. orders
from Govt. to pay me 6, or 700. Louis, but “by the by (says he) I have been lately
informed that Mr. Penet has protested bills to a considerable amount, drawn on him
by the Virginia Agent at New-Orleans.” Mr. Lynch from Nantes writes me in the mean
time that Mr. Penet's affaires are in a sad condition.8 I have not recd. any money from Virginia ever since I had the pleasure to see you.
Had I not had some property and good Friends in this part of the World, I should have
been in a deplorable situation. But now the delay begins to be unbearable, and I often
think of going to France, and embark for America. I want your advice to sanctify my
resolution. Pray, dear Sir, do not deny it me; honour me with { 70 } an answer, and please to have it delivered to the Director Genl: of the Dutch Post,
to whom this is inclosed by the Director Genl: of the Post in Tuscany, who, besides
being my Friend, is ordered to take particular care of my letters.

I am sensible of your Excellency's multiplicity of business of the last importance;
a few lines written by any body, and signed by you, is all I take the liberty to ask.
And I have the honour to be most respectfully, Sir, your Excellency's most Humble
and most Obedient Servant

3. Francesco Favi was the secretary to the legation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in France;
Mazzei often used him to deliver correspondence.

4. On 8 Aug. 1781, Mazzei wrote Thomas Jefferson, then governor of Virginia, acknowledging
receipt of copies of various letters, along with copies of commissions and instructions
relating to his appointment to raise a loan for Virginia in Tuscany, the earliest
of which dated from 1779. Mazzei also complained of the “scandalous” delay that held
up the papers in Paris for over a year. By the time Jefferson received this letter,
Virginia's new governor, Benjamin Harrison, had already written to Mazzei on 31 Jan.
1782 to relieve him of his appointment. Mazzei had apparently not yet received that
letter at this time; he acknowledged its receipt on 6 Sept. (Jefferson, Papers, 6:114–116, 162–163).

7. The first quotation likely comes from Jefferson to Mazzei, 31 May 1780, the second
letter Jefferson sent to Mazzei on that date, which has been lost (see Mazzei to Jefferson,
8 March 1782, in Margherita Marchione, ed., Philip Mazzei: Selected Writings and Correspondence, Prato, Italy, 1983, 1:332–336). The second quotation is from Jefferson's letter
to Mazzei of 12 May 1780 (same, 1:225–226).

8. Neither of these items has been located. A few weeks later, Mazzei would describe
J. Pierre Penet of the merchant house of Penet, da Costa Frères & Co., as “an accomplished
master of deviousness and a swindler” (Mazzei to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 19 June
1782, same, 1:354). Mark Lynch was a merchant in Nantes who had exchanged letters
with JA in July 1780 over some books that Lynch forwarded to JA according to Mazzei's instructions (vol. 9:503–504).

Docno: ADMS-06-13-02-0032

Author: Livingston, Robert R.

Recipient: Adams, John

Date: 1782-05-22

From Robert R. Livingston

No. 6 3plicate

[dateline] Philadelphia, 22d May 1782

[salute] Dear Sir

It is so important to let you know that the late change in the British Ministry and
the conciliating measures they propose have occasioned no alteration in the sentiments
of people here, that tho' I am too much hurried, (this conveyance going sooner than
was intended,) to take particular notice of the letters we have received from { 71 } you, and which remain unanswered, yet I cannot but avail myself of it to inform you
that it will not have the least effect upon the sentiments or wishes of people here,
who remain invariably attached to their independence and to their alliance, as the
best means to obtain it. Sir Guy has written to the general a very polite Letter,
complaining of the manner in which the war has been carried on, proposing to conduct
it in future upon more liberal principles, and observing that “They were both equally
concerned to preserve the character of Englishmen” and concluding with the request
of a passport for Mr Morgan his secretary to carry a similar Letter of compliment
to Congress. Congress have directed that no such passports be given.1 The state of Maryland, whose Legislature happened to be sitting have come to resolutions
which shew their determination not to permit any negotiation except thro' Congress,
and their sense of the importance of the Alliance.2

No military operations are carrying on at present, the Enemy having received no reinforcements,
and growing weaker every day, of consequence afford us a fine opportunity of striking
to advantage, if we are not disappointed in our expectation of a naval Armament, or
even without such Armament if we have sufficient vigor of mind to rely on our own
strength. I commit the enclosed for Mr Dana to your care;3 I wish it could get to him, if possible, without inspection.

Congress have determined in future to pay your salaries here quarterly.4 I shall consider myself as your Agent; unless you should chuse to appoint some other,5 and make out your account quarterly, and vest the money in bills upon Doctor Franklin
to whom I will remit them, giving you advice thereof, so that you may draw on him.
By the next Vessel, I shall send Bills for one quarter commencing the first of January
last.6 I wish to have a state of your Accounts, previous to that, that I may get it settled
and remit the Ballance.

I have the honor to be, sir with great respect & Esteem Your most obedient humble
servt

[signed] Robt R Livingston

Tripl (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Secretary Livingston. 22 May. ansd 6 Septr. 1782 No 6.” Although JA wrote a detailed reply to this letter on 6 Sept., he acknowledged its arrival in the form of a triplicate in his letter of 4 Sept., below. A second copy in the Adams Papers, erroneously designated No. 7, was probably the original, and the duplicate of the
letter is in MHi: John Adams, Embassy MSS. Livingston's previous letter to JA was that of 5 March (vol. 12:295–299).

1. Sir Guy Carleton's letter, dated 7 May at New York, reached the Congress on 14 May
as an enclosure in George Washington's letter of 10 May. The Congress immediately
took the resolution indicated by Livingston (JCC, 22:263).

2. This resolution by the Maryland House of Delegates was taken on 15 May and ap• { 72 } peared in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 22 May.

4. Livingston was anticipating Congress' action. Such a resolution, which took effect
immediately, was adopted on 29 May, but it was repealed on 5 June and replaced with
another that would apply from 1 August. The measure resulted from a general review
of the salaries of all American representatives in Europe initiated on 9 May when
the Congress received a letter from Robert Morris dated the 8th in which he indicated
that La Luzerne, the French minister, had told him “that in future no sums will be
paid to the ministers of the United States in Europe by his court.” This, according
to Morris, made it necessary “to make provision for their support here,” and the solution
that he proposed in his letter was essentially that adopted by the Congress on 28
May. The letter from Morris was accompanied by another of the same date from the secretary
for foreign affairs in which the salaries of the American ministers and their secretaries
were examined and nine resolutions offered to establish a new schedule for compensation.
The question of salaries was considered on 28 May and 14 June, but no resolutions
establishing a new schedule were adopted, and the issue lapsed until raised anew in
late Nov. (JCC, 22:308, 316, 253–260, 306–307, 332–333; 23:741, 850).

5. Livingston renewed his suggestion that JA appoint an agent to receive his salary in his letter of 29 Aug., and Robert Morris urged JA to do so in his letter of 25 Sept. (both below), but there is no indication that JA ever appointed such an agent.